Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Southern Bead Retreat takes place every two years at Callaway Gardens, located in rural south Georgia. I drove down depending upon my phone for directions! When I ended up in a deserted parking lot on Commerce Street in Pine Mountain, GA, I decided it was time to talk to a real person for directions! I was so close...it took less than five minutes to get to Callaway. I checked in, unloaded and went to take my first class from Kimberly Stathsis. She is an outstanding teacher, who writes the best instructions ever!! Here are the earrings I made in class!

They have a post bezeled behind the top tiny pearl. The bottom pearl is encased in a nice pillow. I just love this colorway!!!

Day two of the retreat was with Marcia DeCoster. She rocks! I learned how to do a fast herringbone. Here is the necklace I made in her class.

The focal is a hand painted (by Marcia) wooden ball that is surrounded by a net of seed beads and crystals. On the bottom is a wonderful sparkley bezeled rivoli. The collar tops the focal and is hung on a beautiful fuchsia silk ribbon.

Day three was with Cynthia Rutledge. She is a very patient teacher and an elegant lady! Here is the wearable art necklace I made in her class.

The focal is a ceramic cab that depicts a famous painting. Cynthia had many different cabs to choose from, some were especially artistic! I especially loved making the dangle and the two beaded buttons for the closure. I didn't enjoy making the tiny jump rings and placing them in the tiny space provided for the connections! It was just a me thing as they weren't hard to make!!!

Day four was my shopping day....we won't go there except to say I had a blast!!!

Day five was with Sherry Serafini. Her designs are fabulous and she is a very enthusiastic and creative teacher! Here is the bracelet I made in her class.

We used set crystals and bezeled them and embellished around them to make bead embroidery components. The focal cab was done in a similiar fashion. Then the components were connected with seed beads and crystal. The photo doesn't do the bracelet justice!!

Day six was with Dianne Fitzgerald. She is just full of knowledge about beading!!! We worked with right angle weave to make this bracelet.

I love the bling of this bracelet and we only had to count to four to make it!! I finished the bracelet early and was so excited to wear it!!!

Day seven, the last day, was spent with Huib Petersen. He is such a fun teacher with great stories! We were given the option of just making the ladybug with size 8 seed beads or the whole bracelet kit with size 11 seed beads. I chose the size 11 seed beads. Here is my ladybug and aphid!!!

This was by far the most challenging project of the week! First I started with the wrong number of beads (I only had to count to four yesterday!) then I had to start over to get my increases in the right place! Completed the project was a bracelet with bugs atop, but I chose to just make the bugs! I think they are so cute!!! I learned a lot about increasing and decreasing in peyote stitch!!!

All in all the week was filled with fun and lots of new learnings!! I made so many new friends!!! I didn't want to leave!!!

Monday, October 22, 2012

I just returned from the third biannual Southern Bead Retreat. There were fantastic teachers there! Below is a photo of the group of teachers along with myself! From left to right, is Dianne Fitzgerald, Huib Petersen, Sherry Serafini, Cynthia Rutledge, myself, and Marcia DeCoster! Kimberley Stathsis was also a guest beader who taught an earring class, but she wasn't there for the whole retreat.

I will be posting the completed works in a later post....I still have to finish one kit!!! For now I would like to tell you about the two new tools I found while there.

The first tool is a new type of beading mat. Here is a photo of it.

I think it is made of a high quality cotton-based short velvet. The inside velvet on this mat is such a soft shade of sage green. The seed beads seem to fall hole up when you pour them onto the mat making it easier to pick them up. The padded ridge, made from a printed short velvet fabric, around the mat keeps your beads in place and also works as a comfortable hand/wrist rest. I bought this mat from Cynthia Rutledge. Here is the photo of the tag information. It was a little pricey, but I felt it was worth the money invested!!

The second tool is probably the most important! After a long day of beading, we would gather around tables in the home room and chat while we beaded. We needed some relaxing refreshment, so it was a good thing I brought this tool!

Yes, you guessed it! A wine bottle opener!! The wine flowed, we beaded, we chatted, and we relaxed!!!! We learned a lot and had a wonderful time!!!

About Me

Hi! I am a beadweaver. Yes, one of those 'one tiny bead at a time' people! I love it! I did not start out as a beadweaver. I was a kindergarten teacher in my former life but fell into beadweaving when my family relocated. I started learning beadweaving techniques in August of '08. I quickly became engrossed with all the possibilities. I am continually looking for new techniques, while practicing and developing the ones I know. I love to create original works, especially, because they are very challenging and require a lot of thought and problem solving. Sometimes they start out as one idea and evolve into something quite different. Playing with beads...that's me!!!